GAY MARRIAGE MAY BECOME LEGAL IN THE ISLANDS--WITHOUT NECESSARILY COMING TO A CHAPEL NEAR YOU

Six years ago next week, three couples, all longtime residents of Hawaii, decided to challenge that state's proscription of same-sex marriage by applying for marriage licenses in Honolulu. It was not a decision they entered into lightly. Joe Melillo and Patrick Lagon had been a couple for 13 years; Antoinette Pregil and Tammy Rodrigues--who raised Antoinette's daughter together--for nine; and Ninia Baehr and Genora Dancel for 18 months. The health department refused to issue the licenses on the ground that only a man can marry a woman, and only a woman can marry a man.